Archives for February 2015

Audio Technica was busy planning how to attack the $300~ price range. Not only did they reveal the closed-back ATH-M70x but they also revealed a parallel open-back audiophile-baiting model, the ATH-R70x, and this model is now available for pre-order for $350 at Amazon.com with a May 1st release estimate. As the name suggests, this is a co-flagship with the M70x in this part of their product line-up.

The Shure SRH 440 closed-back over-ears go for $100 in new condition, and stay there, partly because they have been in recommendation lists for a while now. On the used front, as of the time of writing, you can get them for $75 (was $71.50) in “Used – Like New” condition from Amazon Warehouse Deals actual. There they are also offered as seller refurbished from Audiotopia for $75 with the order fulfilled by Amazon. These have a 4.3 out of 5 based on 341 customer reviews… Price updated 3/1/15.

Another Beats Solo competitor is getting discounted, and heavily at that, the Fanny Wang Ruby Red Metallic On-Ears are down to $30 by Fanny Wang with the orders fulfilled by Amazon.com so the usual terms for free shipping (Prime or with $35+ order). You can buy as many as you like at this price. They come with an in-line cable splitter and a pouch. They average 4 out of 5 based on 125 customer reviews.

Warm up your AMPs and DACs, there’s a 250 ohm headphone offer in this post. Adorama is offering the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro (250 ohm) for $180 after a $30 mail-in rebate (MIR). This mail-in rebate offer expires 3/5/15 (direct link to the rebate instructions). The Adorama website has a limit of two per shopping cart. The mail-in rebate form says limit three. The rebate form is specifically for purchases made at Adorama.

NOTE: Adorama is testing a website redesign with some visitors, and the redesign doesn’t mention the mail-in rebate until after you add the item to the shopping cart. The price you see is $180 after the $30 mail-in rebate, not before the MIR.

PS: the DT880 are semi-open. A simple rule of thumb to remember the open-ness of the BeyerD Trilogy is that the higher the number, the more open they get. The DT770 are closed, the DT880 are semi-open, the DT990 are open.

On the ultra-budget front, for under $5 with free shipping, you can get the new condition but in bulk packaging white Samsung Galaxy earbuds. This is model EO-HS3303WE with three buttons (volume up/down and click) and mic. Limit 50 per customer. The listing says “extra gels not included”. The seller of record is chubbiestech (98.6%).

Needless to say, don’t expect miracles for $5 shipped earbuds. They average 3.5 out of 5 based on nearly 1100 customer reviews at amazon.com which also sells them in bulk packaging. If you are curious, they have 59 questions answered.

Fully unlocked (aka the lowest price possible during this offer) at Massdrop is the Just Mobile HeadStand going for $35 plus $6 shipping. There are three color choices available, you select the color during the checkout process. The offer ends in about 5 days from today (today = blog-posting date which you see in every post here). This averages 4.4 out of 5 based on 58 customer reviews at amazon.

Needless to say, if you are simply looking for something utilitarian, anything from a banana holder to a coffee mug holder to a simple over-the-door hook can serve as a headphone holder at a fraction of the price. You may win Martha Stewart points, you may not win GQ points with the utilitarian approach 😉

Not fully unlocked as of the time of writing are the Blue Ever Blue 1001SV in-ears, with the lowest price possible being $93~ shipped.

The basic Sony ZX-110 closed-back on-ears (no mic/remote) will be on sale for $10 per pair, in either black or white, at Staples brick and mortar stores. I don’t know if their website will have them at that price as well. These are the replacement for the ZX-100.

One of Yamaha’s attempts to get into the “Beats Solo market” are the Pro 300 headphones and as of the time of writing, the black color scheme of these is on sale, in new condition, for $89 with free shipping, with a limit of two per customer at Amazon by Amazon actual. They average 3.7 out of 5 based on 62 customer reviews.

If you are fond of buying used equipment, the first wave of used Sony Walkman NWZ-A17-SLV audiophile level Digital Audio Players are starting to hit Amazon Warehouse Deals. The discounts are not big right now, but less is less. As of the time of writing of this, there are two “Used – Very Good” condition listings for $271. The new condition goes for $300 and is in-stock from Sony.

At members only website Massdrop, the blue limited edition of the Shure SE 215 in-ears is fully unlocked (= lowest price possible) for $115 with free shipping. The offer ends in about seven days from blog-posting date.

Woot Plus has a sale of AKG headphones that features the new condition on-ear K518 LE DJ headphones in either white or red, for $30 per pair, with a limit of three pairs per color. This sale also includes the refurbished AKG K495NC (active noise cancelling) for $150. This AKG sale ends by March 3 (2015).

With the same expiration date, also at Woot Plus, there is a sale on Monster headphones featuring the Inspiration Over-Ears for $100, and the DNA On-Ears (iOS) for $95, and the Inspiration In-Ears for $50.

Shipping at Woot is $5 flat for everything you buy during a single day.

The first generation Beats Studio over-ear headphones with active noise cancelling (powered by AAA batteries) is offered for $100 with free shipping in various colors by BuySPRY on eBay (99.4%). This is described as “New other (see details)” condition, and the seller notes describe it as follows:

“This item is in a NEW CONDITION. Item comes with Hard Case, Batteries, and a Volume control and mic cable. (Does not come with retail box or serial number as the warranty is provided from the seller for 60 days)”

On the discovery front, if you like to try out obscure single-figure headphones, the yellow color scheme of the Blackmore BH-1900 headphones (I can’t tell from the picture if they are over-ear or on-ear) are going for around $6~ at Amazon.com by Amazon actual in new condition. Limit three per customer. According to the product description, they have 40mm drivers with 32 ohm impedance.

If you want both the new Audio Technica ATH-M70x and the Fiio E11K Kilimanjaro2 portable headphone amp, you can buy them together as a discounted bundle for $310 with free shipping by Pitbull Audio on Amazon. The eBay listing is no longer available… This eBay listing has “Best Offer” enabled so you could try to “negotiate” a lower price using eBay’s “Best Offer” mechanism.

The headphones on their own or with smaller value freebies go for $300 (Fiio E6 or accessories).

After all the buzz generated by the M50 and M50x, it was only a matter of time before Audio Technica decided to jump on to the lucrative $300 price point with their Mx line-up. And now, the ATH-M70x are in-stock and shipping for $300 from various sellers at Amazon and Pitbull Audio on eBay.

Meanwhile, other retailers are beginning to offer some small freebies while still keeping the price at $300, for example Pitbull Audio on eBay includes the Fiio E6 portable headphone amp, while Kraft Music includes an extra cable, Kinyo earbuds and 4GB flash drive.

On the band co-branded earbuds front, from “Section 8”, the Judas Priest earbuds, with a 3 year warranty per the box, are currently on sale for $5 fulfilled by Amazon (sold by marketplace seller). There are six units left per the listing. The usual Amazon free shipping terms apply (Prime or with $35+ orders).

MacMall is offering the Belkin RockStar 5-Port Multi-Headphone Splitter + Aux Cable for $5 total. No coupon needed. You can buy as many as you like. Free shipping with an order of $35 or more, otherwise you have to pay shipping. Only one color scheme is available through this offer. This is an unpowered splitter, so the number and type of headphones attached will affect the output volume.

If you want other colors or have free Prime shipping, the prices start at $8 at amazon.com with a very solid 4.7 out of 5 based on 742 customer reviews.

If you are a fan of the AKG K7XX open-back headphones, the tuned for Massdrop AKG K7XX (actual model name, the Xs are not stand-ins or variables), is offered fully unlocked (= lowest price possible) for $200 with free shipping. The K7XX is based on the K702 65th anniversary edition. Per the listing, these are the final 1000 units of the first edition of this particular headphone. As of the time of writing, 41 units got purchased from this listing. The listing ends in about seven days from today (= blog posting date).

Massdrop is the only retailer to buy it from, but that hasn’t stopped some people from trying to sell it on eBay at a high premium ($340).

Nowhere near as shiny audiophile wise as the K7XX, but also fully unlocked are the Moe Audio MOE-SS01 in-ears going for $42~ shipped. Uncle Moe currently goes for $50 at amazon but it only has two reviews there so far.

Last but not least in this Massdrop round-up, not fully unlocked yet (but has seven days left from today) are the Samson SR950 50mm driver over-ears, with the lowest price possible being $55 shipped. They currently go for $70 at various retailers including amazon where they average 4.4 out of 5 based on 14 customer reviews. It’s all 5s and 4s, except for one 1-star review.

As of 3/1/15, these sold out at the $112 price… The HifiMan EF-2A headphone amp is currently offered in “Used – Very Good” condition for around $112 by Audio Advisor with the order fulfilled by Amazon.com. This amp averages 4.2 out of 5 based on 62 customer reviews.

If you like to listen to music or audio in bed, but haven’t found a comfortable or safe way to use headphones or earphones, there are some products specifically designed for bed listening. One of those is offered at Stacksocial for $40 with free shipping, they are the Bedphones Sleep Headphones, in either black or white. They ship 1-2 weeks after ordering.

They average 3.7 out of 5 based on 170 customer reviews at amazon.com.

The Apple Earpods with remote and mic, model MD827LL/A, are available in bulk packaging for $15 at Groupon Goods. Limit up to five per customer. Free shipping if your total Groupon offer is $25 or more. Free returns. Over 1000 units sold so far from this listing. Offer ends around 3/8/15 give or take.

At members-only but free-to-join website Massdrop, two new offers were added. Neither is fully unlocked as of the time of writing. First up, it is the SYUN MIX-1 earbuds that could go as low as $24 shipped. Next up, it is the iBasso DX90 DAP that could go as low as $345 shipped. It currently goes for $380 from authorized iBasso distributors at amazon.com.

Fully unlocked, of semi-related interest, the AntLion ModMic 4.0 is $40 shipped over there at Massdrop. The offers mentioned in this post expire 4-6 days from today (today = blog-posting date).

Also at Groupon Goods, in new condition, in the white color scheme only (the black is currently sold out), they are offering the Yamaha EPH-C500 in-ears for $30 with free shipping per pair. Offer ends around 3/5/15 (give or take).

To the Groupon Goods we go now, where we find the Philips SHP9500 open-back headphones offered in new condition for $65 with free shipping and free returns. Shipping estimate is 12 business days after purchase, so keep that in mind if you have time constraints. They have 50mm drivers with 32 ohm impedance, and giant L/R printed on the earcups, and average 5 out of 5 with 5 customer reviews at amazon. The Groupon offer ends around 3/8/15 (give or take).

UPDATE (2/24/15): the in-stock marketplace option sold-out, and Amazon’s own in-stock estimate has it at a floating “3 to 6 weeks”. In addition to the 64GB of on-board storage, this takes up to a 128GB microSD card, which is definitely a plus if you are using FLAC and other higher-than-MP3 file formats. It averages 4.2 out of 5 based on 47 customer reviews, and has a total of 90 questions answered.

No, you don’t need to buy an “audiophile” microSD card at 5X+ the price, unless you want to help kickstart Sony’s profit margins during their hard financial times 🙂

A quick trip at Amazon Warehouse Deals has a few more offers, starting with the RF Wireless (900 MHz) RCA WHP141B headphones going for $19 in “Used – Acceptable” condition at Amazon Warehouse Deals. These have been around for a while and have amassed over 1600 customer reviews with a 3.5 out of 5. They have issues and trade-offs, so be sure to consider them before buying. One of the reasons why the Sennheiser RF/Kleer headphones cost a lot more.

The black color scheme of the dual driver MEelectronics M-Duos are currently available in “Used – Very Good” condition for $27 at Amazon Warehouse Deals. The other two color schemes go for more. These average 4.1 out of 5 based on 174 customer reviews.

As of a 2/24/15 re-checking, this sold out at this used price… The RHA MA350 in-ears go for $40 in new condition, but you can get them for half the price in “Used – Very Good” condition at this point in time at Amazon Warehouse Deals. They average 3.9 out of 5 based on 174 customer reviews.